Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a patchboard with multiple honeycomb components, whereby the individual honeycomb components in each case have a box-shaped housing with two front surfaces and four side surfaces, which extend between the front surfaces, and whereby the two front surfaces of the honeycomb components in each case have at least one connecting area.
Description of Related Art
Patchboards are used in particular in places where a number of electrical conductors must be connected in a very tight space. To this end, patchboards are known from experience in which within a solid, rectangular assembly frame, a number of honeycomb components are arranged in corresponding chambers of the frame. Electrical conductors can be connected to the patchboard or the individual honeycomb components both from the front, or field side, and from the rear, or plant side. To this end, connecting elements are arranged in the box-shaped housings of the individual honeycomb components, which elements are in general connected to one another via corresponding busbars, so that an electrical conductor that is inserted through a corresponding conductor inflow opening in the forward front surface can be electrically connected to an electrical conductor or to a connecting contact that is inserted through a corresponding inflow opening in the rear front surface of the housing.
Such a patchboard having a number of honeycomb components is known from, for example, German Patent Application DE 195 12 226 A1. In the patchboard that is disclosed in this publication, the individual honeycomb components, which are inserted into the individual chambers of the assembly frame, all have the same dimensions and the same number and size of conductor inflow openings, so that both the maximum conductor cross-section of the connectable conductor and the number thereof are preset. Adapting the patchboard to a user's individual needs is not possible in the case of this known patchboard. If the number of conductors to be connected has to be increased, a correspondingly larger patchboard having a larger number of individual honeycomb components thus has to be used, whereby in practice, patchboards with 18, 32, 48, 54 or 80 honeycomb components are available.
A patchboard, as it is used in, for example, rolling stock for electrical distribution, is known from Gelman Patent Application DE 10 2013 101 830 A1. Depicted in FIGS. 7 and 8 of this publication are two different assembly frames or distributor housings, in which in each case, a preset number —18 or 54—of chambers is laid out in matrix form, in which in each case a honeycomb component with two conductor inflow openings in the forward front surface is arranged. In fact, in this known patchboard, the production of the individual honeycomb components is to be simplified, but flexible adaptation of the patchboard to a user's individual needs is also not possible here.